Organ and scythe

On Tuesday evenings in "Gårdby", a village on the other side of my island, some people in the local history society arrange evenings where the locals can show what their community has to offer. Tourists are welcome to spend money on crafts, coffee and ice cream but many "locals" were enjoying themselves too this evening. I was interested in listening to the church organ, the oldest one on Öland, built 1842 by a skilled self taught local craftsman. The organist, a friend of mine, was demonstrating what the instrument could do and explaining the story behind the instrument being there in the first place. The main shows the inside of the instrument, for those of you who never seen what it looks like behind the pipes. The first extra shows the front facade of the organ. By the way, none of the pipes you see in the extra are actually attached to anything. It was quite common to show some powerful pipes, which was what people expected to see but all the action takes place on the inside of the instrument. It would also have been extremely complicated to attach air tubes to the front pipes, they are only decorative.

After the demonstration I heard they were showing off mowing of a meadow nearby using scythes, so of course I had to go there to watch them working. The guy I talked to had a lot of tips to give me about using the scythe and the different blades they use. I also got the opportunity to try a scythe and I stayed for a while helping him with a part of the meadow. Fun and informative. The weather has been similar to yesterdays but less rain and the grass was pretty dry when we mowed it. Windy and rather chilly though, I wouldn't mind a touch of the southern European heat wave, we hardly reach twenty on the thermometre.